Music Matters

In this programme

Charles Rosen
The American pianist and scholar Charles Rosen has made a huge contribution to current musical thinking through his books on the Classical Style and Sonata Forms. He celebrates his 80^th Birthday this year and his passion for the piano has not waned. Rosen has written about the art of playing the piano in his book Piano Notes, but he also continues to perform. Tom caught up with Rosen at Steinway's in London where he was selecting an instrument for his upcoming concert. With illustration on the piano, Rosen explains his enduring love for the instrument.

Charles Rosen is touring the UK with masterclasses, lectures and recitals in Bradford-upon-Avon, London, Manchester and Abbotsholme from 27^th Jan - 9^th Feb.

Music Manifesto update! State of Play conference
Following up on the recent Music Matters debate on the state of music education in the UK, Tom attended the State of Play conference at the Roundhouse in North London to find out exactly how the government would respond to the latest recommendations of the Music Manifesto. He talked to Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, who announced ten million pounds of new funding for a scheme to get the nation's children singing before the 2012 Olympics, to find out if this commitment is sufficient to deliver the Music Manifesto's 69 proposals for change.

Kevin McCloud
The designer and broadcaster Kevin McCloud is well known for his observations on contemporary architecture. One of his prime concerns is the marriage between space and purpose - a combination especially important in the experience of listening to music. Tom met up with Kevin in the neo-classical splendour of Nicholas Hawksmoor's Christ Church Spitalfields and then visited the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank to find out about his thoughts on the real relationship between music and the buildings it is performed in.

Jeremy Barlow
 Hidden in the depths of great centres of learning in Oxford, the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean museum, is a unique collection of musical arcana - a treasury of humourous musical iconography. The marginalia, prints and ephemera represented in Jeremy Barlow's book, The Cat and the Fiddle, cover a period of around 750 years. All of the images are taken from collections donated to these Oxford institutions by four key contributors: Francis Douce, John Johnson, Iona and Peter Opie, and Walter Harding. Jeremy Barlow joins Tom in Oxford to retrace his steps in unearthing these remarkable collections, finding images from the glorious to the grotesque.

Music Matters

Episode and Playlist Information

• 4 February 2007
• 21 January 2007
• 7 January 2007
• 10 December 2006
• 3 Dec 06 Ned Rorem
• 19 Nov 06 Prokofiev
• 12 Nov 06 Gilbert and Sullivan

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